Michael J. Young, MD

Kathryn interviews Author Michael J. Young, MD. Dr. Michael J. Young, a practicing surgeon for 30 years examines how one experiences medical treatment from both sides of the table, including the significant obstacles patients endure, as well as the exasperation many of the truly dedicated medical professionals feel. The controlling arrogance of the insurance industry and the clout pharmaceutical companies have over us has become overwhelming. Patients have essentially no control and doctors have lost the ability to direct their own profession. Profit-driven corporations dictate how our care is now governed. Most painful is how we are treated by the medical system itself. Absent is the sense of concern and empathy we used to associate with the medical profession. He asserts medicine has become a mechanism of profit, a business whose own bureaucratic tendencies have spread like a powerful, aggressive disease. Dr. Young is presently a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Urology at the U of Illinois, involved in the innovation and development of surgical and medical devices..Kathryn also interviews Author Laura Whitfield. When Laura Whitfield was fourteen, her extraordinary brother, Lawrence, was killed in a mountain climbing accident. That night she had an epiphany:?Life is short. Dream big, even if it means taking risks. So, after graduating from high school, she set out on her own, prepared to do just that. She made the move to the Big Apple to pursue her "dreams" in the big city while waiting tables and trying to find love. But nothing seemed to work, and there was only one thing Laura could think of to get back on her feet –– she moved back to North Carolina. A stirring memoir about a young woman's quest to find hope and stability after devastating loss, she learns that taking risks—and failing—can lead to a bigger life than you've ever dared to imagine. She has been an advertising copywriter, newspaper columnist, staff writer for an international relief agency, travel writer, as well as a personal assistant to a NY Times best selling author.